Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Session 42 saw the characters exploring Level 5 of Dwimmermount, after having descended to it by means of an elevator they discovered on Level 4. Their initial survey of the level made it clear that they'd already been down to this level by means of a teleportation device earlier in the dungeon, a fact made all the more certain by the detailed maps and notes Dordagdonar has been keeping since they started their expedition. Consequently, the party was very wary. They knew that Level 5 was home to a goodly number of Termaxian cultists, along with their werewolf allies, and that the Termaxians were both magically potent and in telepathic communication with one another. Thus, an attack against a single group of the cultists would almost certainly result in the appearance of more cultists in fairly short order.

Consequently, much of the session was spent carefully examining the area of Level 5 in which they were currently located, paying attention to means of entrance and exits. The party rightly felt that the best course of action was to proceed into those areas from which they were least vulnerable to an attack on multiple fronts. Unfortunately for them, this was no easy task; there were many entrances, doors, and corridors in their immediate vicinity. Barring extreme luck on their part, they would likely have to be on their guard at all times.

Both Brother Candor and Dordagdonar possess rings of invisibility (yes, I am aware that this makes me a bad person). They decided to scout ahead invisibly to get a better sense of where danger might lie. As it turned out, a large room not far away was occupied by a Termaxian adept and four soldiers wearing azoth-infused armor. A plan was formulated: Brother Candor would cast silence 15' radius into the midst of them, thus preventing the adept from casting spells, while Dordagdonar would send a fireball at them. Of course, they'd both then be rendered visible, but they hoped that their plan would result in sufficient chaos that they'd not suffer to much for it.

Things went somewhat as planned, with the adept retreating to a corner of the room out of view, while the much-harmed warriors closed in to engage in melee. The rest of the party rushed to the defense of their comrades and battled ensued. It did not last long, though, as Dordagdonar quickly tired of combat and cast a stinking cloud on the group. None of the warriors made their saving throws and thus doubled over, retching and coughing. They were soon dispatched before they had the chance to move out of the cloud.

This left the adept alive, but, as the stinking cloud would still be active for several more rounds, no one in the party could dare to pass through it to get to him. Brother Candor's earlier fear proved correct, as the party saw three werewolves and three more Termaxian adepts rushing down a corridor from another room -- alerted by the stranded adept, no doubt. The party pulled back to brace themselves and to break line of sight on the adepts. The werewolves put up a fight for a few rounds, but were eventually slain. In death, their bodies reverted to those of human beings wearing nothing but wolfskin cloaks (that were later confirmed to be magical in nature).

The other adepts, however, did not make an appearance, prompting Dordagdonar to again become invisible and sneak down the corridor to see what was happening. The adept were no longer in sight; in their place was a young white dragon slithering down the hallway toward the party's position. This was the dragon they'd seen earlier in a room that was likely close by, so Brother Candor and company were distressed at the prospect. Dordagdonar, meanwhile, was skeptical and advanced toward the dragon so that he could use his wand of paralyzation on him. This he did, but the wand seemingly had no effect upon it, which only heightened his skepticism. Now visible after having used the wand, he swung at the dragon with his sword, scored a hit, and the it disappeared, revealing itself to be the illusion he suspected it to be.

The disappearance of the dragon was a cue for the Termaxian adepts, who'd used their own invisibility spells to hide themselves to come into view, pelting the elf with magic missiles and nearly slaying him (I believe he came within 1 or 2 hit points of death -- never let anyone tell you magic missile is a useless spell!). By this time, Brother Candor and the rest of the party had arrived to fight the adepts. A melee followed, with several other near-deaths, but the whole thing ended with the use of hold person, which resulted in all three adepts being easy pickings for the party.

At this stage, the PCs were low on hit points and spells but the decision was made to press ahead at least a little more. Several other rooms, including one with a spring-loaded arrow trap, were explored before the party found a filthy, rank room that was home to at least three trolls. Needless to say, this frightened them quite a bit. Trolls are tough opponents even when fully prepared for them, but the party was not. Rather than face them, they quickly tossed down several flasks of oil, ignited them, and retreated back to the elevator to make their way to the surface for re-supply.

Quite a change from earlier sessions that were heavy on exploration and mystery: this one sounded like one long and exciting firefight. :)

Question: granted that the tiles you use can't perfectly represent Dwimmermount, how big are those corridors, that a dragon could plausibly travel them? Or was that one of the clues that made Dordagdonar go "hmmm....?"

There was more to the session than a single big combat, but I'm trying to find a way to make my session reports less blow-by-blow and so I've downplayed some of the less "exciting" bits.

I use 5-foot squares in my game and most dungeon corridors are between 10 and 15 feet wide. The white dragon they'd seen was a young one and smallish. It could have plausibly fit down the corridor, though it'd have been tight. It's partly why Dordagdonar was suspicious, though.

Sounds like an exciting session! I like how your whole campaign seems to have an air of mystery around it. So many questions unanswered and then revealed slowly. Sounds like the players are really hooked!

I like how your whole campaign seems to have an air of mystery around it.

Thank you, though, to be fair, much of that mystery is a consequence of my only making up a little more than I need to know before each session. By necessity, I keep certain things vague and avoid giving unambiguous answers. I'll confess that I'm good at doing this in a way that implies I know more than I'm saying, but it's (mostly) a con game. :)

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